Wordless Wednesday

Suzuki Saturday

We picked up my first car last night. We put a lizard decal on this morning so we know which is my car. Let hope I remember to look for the Suzuki instead of Ford.

Wordless Wednesday

Our travels to Rhodes

We recently had our annual holiday to Rhodes, one of the Greek islands. We flew from Bristol, so had a car journey on the M5 before getting to the airport. When we left Exmouth the weather was reasonable and quite warm and as we approached south of Bristol the weather changed.

Typical British weather.

When we got to the airport we checked in and then made our way to security, and Lucien suddenly shouted at me to stop, as I turned I saw a gorilla. It was a Bristol Zoo gorilla.

When we got to Pefkos Beach Hotel we said "Hello" to the receptionist, Andy and went to get a nightcap at the bar. We decided to have a 'Pefkos Special'.

Best cocktails ever!

We had a really good catch up with the barman of the pool bar. The first day of our holiday we went to the supermarket and stocked up on essentials, whilst we were looking round we saw Lipton's range of teas.

Chamomile, peppermint, lemon and green teas.

After we did our supermarket trip we decided to drive over to the opposite side of the island to Sianna, and to see one of our friends we bought some honey, souma, and olive oil from him, then we went to another shop and found some really nice local red wine so bought some wine too.

Minas at his shop where we bought honey, souma, and olive oil.

We went to a superstore, called Jumbo, which is like a Wilko's and Toys 'R' Us combined. We spent over an hour in there and saw lots of bits we liked and accidently bought lots of sundries.

Candle holders.

Pretty sparkly butterflies.

We found lots of funny dog outfits including this one...

This one is for chav dogs.

The best part of Jumbo is the toilets...

One of the toilet cubicles.

Lucien and I decided to do something we hadn't done before and went to climb up Tsambika mountain to the little monastery at the top. Tsambika is the monastery that is said to help you to conceive children if you couldn't beforehand. After climbing up and falling back down we decided to make the most of the views and had a drink and some food at the 'taverna'.

Views whilst we had our lunch.

After lunch we saw that it had suddenly turned cloudy which never happens when we are there on holiday.

Very cloudy day.

On another day, we went to a garden centre which had opened since we were last on the island last year. We met a really nice chap that had moved from Lancashire and is now living on Rhodes with his family and is earning a living by working at the garden centre. 

Standard olives at the garden centre.

We also visited Lucien's favourite spot at the side of the road (in middle of island) and took some photos and stretched our legs.

Whilst on Rhodes we decided that it would be nice to get our wedding rings made, we ordered them and had them custom made to how we wanted them.

Just after buying our wedding rings

Usually on our last evening we don't have any alcohol. We decided to be different this time and had a beer before our meals.

Alfa beer, happy hour price 2.50

mmmm, beer.

On the last night we were also waiting for our rings to be delivered to the hotel. They were running late by a couple of hours so we were sat having dinner hoping for the best after the barman at the Palm Bar had shouted at them about being so late. Eventually they turned up as our starters arrived and all was well in the end.

Looking relieved after rings turned up.

Looking relieved after rings turned up.

We can't wait to be out there next year with our close friends and family for our wedding.

Laura.

Wordless Wednesday

Impatiens kilimanjari

Trip to Trago Mills

We decided to have a trip to Trago Mills, Newton Abbott at the weekend, to grab some bits and see if there were any bargains. When we got there we went to the newly opened restaurant and had a 'bargain breakfast' for £1.99 which included 1 sausage, 1 egg, 1 rasher of bacon, beans and toast. We also got the view of 'The Garden Park' which is the garden centre and Trago gardens.

New restaurant,Very busy.

View of 'The Garden Park'.

Lucien spotted a newly introduced map and of Trago site, so decided to peruse it.

After eating our breakfast we went to have a look in the general store and found Christmas cards on sale for a bargain price so bought some to prepare ourselves. We also walked past a chiller cabinet that had Westaways sausages that were also at a bargain price.

Xmas cards we bought.

18 Sausages for £3.79

We then went to 'The Garden Park' to get compost and look round at the plants.

We came across a Cordyline karo kiri, we hadn't heard of this Cordyline before but were tempted by it because of it petit growing habit (maximum of 1.2 metres).

Cordyline karo kiri.

We also found two nice sized and healthy looking Butia odorata (labelled capitata). There was also a danish trolley full of different plants, where found some sempervivum and couldn't resist getting one.

Butia odorata £92.99

All 99p each.

Whilst wandering around we found something that Lucien described as "great for Gaz and Marks garden".

We ended up with a stunning hand-made tiki mask, which we were looking at with Gaz and Mark a few weeks ago.

In its place in the garden.

Laura

Lucien's guide to building a raised border against a wall

When we want or need a raised border we never buy them, Lucien buys deck boards and builds them instead. This is a guide on how to build them. We started with an area by our back door.

Before anything happened.

Lucien got some stained deckboards.

He then measured the area of where he wanted the raised border and marked up each of the sides on the board.

Lucien then got out the power saw (Black & Decker Scorpion) then measured the boards against each other to make sure that they were all equal sizes.

Lucien went and tried it in the area where he wanted it to make sure it looked okay, before continuing.

Afterwards, Lucien pre-drilled holes before putting the deck screws through.

Pre-drilling the holes.

Lucien's trick is to put all the screws in part way, before putting all the way through.

Both outer sides are done the same way. This is what they should look like.

Luciens next task was to get a bit of wood for the wall side and pre-drill holes through and mark the wall. Then with a power drill, drill holes and place wall plugs into the wall.

Lucien attached the back part to the part that fits against the  fence.

After the back of the border was attached to the wall, Lucien then got the two outer parts and fitted them together before attaching them to the back.

Attaching outer parts together.

This is how the border looks so far.

Lucien used an old compost bag to line the border to stop damp and rot of the wood. He put a couple of slits in the bottom for drainage and nailed the top of the bag to keep it in place.

The last thing that Lucien did was to fill it with compost, select the plants he wanted and plant them out.

Selecting plants.

Laura